April 6: Easter recap

Easter snuck up on us this year and everything we did felt pretty 'last minute.' But even so, the kids had a ball and obtained a ridiculous amount of candy. Therefore, it's a win!

Dyeing of eggs: this happened last week and I will admit, it's not my favorite activity in the world. Can be so messy and chaotic with the big kids doing their thing while Porter wants to chip in and 'help.' Of course, it's really very pretty when I stop worrying about spillage and stains.


Kind of like a science experiment, watching the tablets fizz.


Truman had a traditional 'dunk 'em' kit and CC had a strange marble style kit, that you have to squeeze liquid dye into a plastic bag and rub the egg inside. And Hi, Porter!








They were so proud of their results and we should have gone for two dozen. Also, please note the yellow guy in the upper left. I accidentally squeezed it to death when I was trying to pick it up. Apparently I don't know my own strength and luckily CC wasn't too upset with me since it was one of her six.


Saturday morning, egg hunt at school: I did a Day in the Life this day, so more to come. But it was a chilly/sunny day and our third year doing the hunt at Truman's school. Very fun and very quick! Totally finished within 20 minutes MAX, no time to waste for us to go home and sort our loot.




Quite possibly the creepiest Easter Bunny in the history of time. She was very kind but her nose squeaked when she pushed it and CC was fairly terrified initially. Those eyebrows and teeth! Also, note the fact she is sort of sneaking up on Truman here. (I say 'she' because the gender of the Easter Bunny was a gigantic topic of debate in our house.


Bunny headed towards Nate and Truman. Watch out!


Sunday morning, pre-church: this was kind of hilarious, because Nate and I totally threw this all together last minute. Meaning, I pulled out the old baskets, grass, and eggs and filled them with jelly beans and malt eggs only. Then I felt remorse for not making a Target Dollar Spot trip, and for not doing any chocolate or 'fun' candy outside of the eggs. Nate promised it was not a big deal at all so I didn't go to Target. But then Nate went to Walgreens at nearly midnight the night before with a friend who was watching the basketball game with him, since that dad needed plastic eggs. Nate grabbed some chocolate stuff, PEZ, and other little things to put inside. Plus, although Nate had said it's not worth it to wrap the 'big gifts', he felt like it wouldn't be right unless they were wrapped. So he found our Christmas paper at midnight when I was already passed out asleep and wrapped the gifts himself: Cecelia got a hot pink soccer ball for her little spring league coming up, and Truman got two new Skylander guys. Nate even hid the eggs before he came to bed again, after he had said it would be fine to just have a basket out for the kids. Glad it all worked out and that Nate totally picked up my slack on this event;)







Post-church, at the in-laws: Tony stayed home with a napping Porter while Nate, myself, Lois and the two big kids went to church. They both did really, really well for a long service like that....especially knowing that another egg hunt was awaiting them. We went to the in-laws after church and ate brunch after the kids got their baskets from Lois.


I forced the family to take a picture together since we were all dressed up nicely. Ah, this crew of mine makes me smile. Nate's giant foot, Truman cupping Porter's foot, Cecelia's forced smile....good stuff.


Brunch was fantastic: Tony's egg strata, fruit, Lois' potatoes, and poppy seed bread with frosting. This is a pastry that I hadn't heard of before meeting Nate's family. It's freaking phenomenal...all of it was.


Then Lois hid some eggs outside and the kids searched for them. It was pretty cold and windy and overcast so they made short work of this part!






Also, Porter wore Tony's Marquette hat and then I died from cuteness.


Really good weekend over here! Sort of exhausting but in a great way. I think next year I should attempt to find official Easter outfits for the children instead of just scrambling the morning of church, to find items that would fit/work well enough. Pretty sure both Truman and Cecelia wore the exact same outfits to Porter's baptism but I don't think God cares too much about that. Also, I should actually think about the whole basket/egg hunt thing more than one night in advance. But actually I don't think the kids care much anyway as long as there's candy involved. No worries there, children!